Bar-throated Apalis (Apalis thoracica) [XC383023]
by Peter Boesman from West Coast National Park, West Coast DC, Western Cape, South Africa (duet, song)
Bar-throated Apalis (Apalis thoracica) [XC279824]
by Rob van Bemmelen from Kurisa Moya, Tzaneen, Limpopo, South Africa (song)
Subspecies
Apalis thoracica (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Bar-throated Apalis (Apalis thoracica), Taita Apalis (Apalis fuscigularis), Namuli Apalis (Apalis lynesi) and Yellow-throated Apalis (Apalis flavigularis) following Collar et al. (1994).
Sometimes considered to form a superspecies with Black-collared Apalis (Oreolais pulcher) and Ruwenzori Apalis (Oreolais ruwenzorii), but these species have ten (not twelve) rectrices, and genetic evidence indicates that they are not closely related to present species. Taxonomy confused by considerable geographical variation in plumage. Until recently was treated as conspecific with Yellow-throated Apalis (Apalis flavigularis), Namuli Apalis (Apalis lynesi) and Taita Apalis (Apalis fuscigularis), and this perhaps more appropriate. Molecular-genetic evidence suggests that these are, indeed, nested among other subspecies of present species. Many subspecies in the largely contiguous populations of southern Africa intergrade over considerable distances, suggesting that they represent clinal variation and could therefore be collapsed; e.g. claudei and capensis could be subsumed into nominate, darglensis into venusta, lebomboensis into drakensbergensis, spelonkensis into flaviventris, and arnoldi into rhodesiae. On the other hand, there are three major genetic divisions among populations in southern Africa: south of R Tugela, in South Africa; R Tugela to R Limpopo; and Zimbabwe.
Proposed subspecies iringae (from Tanzania) merged with griseiceps. Full review desirable. Subspecies whitei sometimes listed as bensoni, but that name preoccupied by a synonym of subspecies strausae of Chapin's Apalis (Apalis chapini).
The following 22 subspecies are recognised:
griseiceps Reichenow & Neumann, 1895 - South-eastern Kenya and northern and central Tanzania.
pareensis Ripley & Heinrich, 1966 - Southern Pare Mts, in north-eastern Tanzania.
murina Reichenow, 1904 - North-eastern and southern Tanzania, northern Malawi (Mafinga Mts, Misuku Hills) and adjacent north-eastern Zambia.
uluguru Neumann, 1914 - Uluguru Mts, in eastern Tanzania.
youngi Kinnear, 1936 - South-western Tanzania, northern and north-central Malawi (including Nyika Plateau) and adjacent north-eastern Zambia.
whitei Grant, CHB & Mackworth-Praed, 1937 - Eastern Zambia and south-central and southern Malawi.